Species (page 43)

Career (page 53)

Gives 8 career skills. Gain one rank (no XP cost) in four of those.

First Specialization (page 55, page 129)

Gives four career skills (which might be in addition to the eight above). Gain one rank (no XP cost) in two of those four career skills (which can raise them to rank 2 if they were ranked in the previous step).

Additional specializations can be bought at character creation but the no-XP-cost ranks can only be taken from this first specialization.

Spend XP

Improve Characteristics

(10 × New Value) XP.
Must be purchased sequentially.
Maximum rank during chargen is 5.

Note that you cannot improve Characteristics with XP gained during play!